A SURVEY OF RESULTS AND FUTURE-PROSPECTS ON QUANTUM 1/F NOISE AND 1/F NOISE IN GENERAL

In this survey article we discuss the problems surrounding quantum 1/f noise and 1/f noise in general. First we present a short history of quantum 1/f noise concepts, since its inception by Handel in 1975 as effect caused by the infrared correction of cross sections and scattering rates. Next, we summarize the result of our recent quantum electrodynamical (QED) theory based on electron-photon interaction (without the lengthy and cumbersome derivations presented elsewhere). These results fully confirm Handel's basic results for quantum 1/f noise of electromagnetic origin associated with scattering in solids, giving rise to mobility fluctuations; this noise is essential and unavoidable, like Nyquist noise and g-r noise. Other aspects of the quantum 1/f noise formalism are not upheld; in particular we discuss at length the problem of other infra-particle 1/f noise ("general quantum 1/f noise principle" and "phonon bremsstrahlung"), quantum 1/f noise associated with capture or emission processes (among other effects the alpha-particle flicker floor) and the non-existence (classically and quantum electrodynamically) of collision-free linear acceleration noise ("transit noise" in vacuum tubes and L2 dependence noise in solids). Finally, we indicate that many 1/f noise problems are solved and do not contribute an "enigma" any more (many aspects of noise in metals, number fluctuation in semiconductors, low alpha-H mobility-fluctuation noise). On the contrary, more research is necessary to explain high alpha-H mobility-fluctuation noise and some modulation-noise models are suggested.